There are many known pumping systems for raising well water or other liquids to the surface. However, raising liquids from deep wells presents problems that have not been adequately addressed by existing pump technology. Currently available electrical turbine pumps and electric submersible pumps have severe horsepower and pumping head and temperature limitations.
There are many applications for deep well pumping systems today. One such application is mine dewatering. Mine Dewatering depths range from 1,000 to 7,000 feet below ground surface. Capital costs for conventional deep well mine pumps are typically on the order of 1-10 million dollars per mine.
Another deep well pumping application is for water supplies. Water supplies include domestic drinking water for cities and large-scale irrigation projects. Water supply aquifer depths can be 3,000 ft. or deeper. Pumping hot water from geothermal deposits for energy production is another application for deep well pumps. Oil and gas wells used in tight shale reserves require large volumes of ground water that must often be pumped from deep wells. Petroleum pumping, including off shore petroleum pumping is another application for deep well pumps.
Some large scale, renewable energy storage systems are based on pumped water storage using vertical turbine-pumps. Vertical turbine-pumps are driven by an electric motor during pumping operations. Such turbine-pumps can also be operated in a reverse direction with injected water causing rotation of a drive shaft that causes rotation of a motor armature in an opposite direction such that the motor functions as an electrical generator. Renewable energy storage systems have a deep aquifer, which functions as a lower reservoir, and a shallower aquifer or a surface level reservoir, which functions as an upper reservoir. During periods of excess wind energy production, water is pumped from the lower reservoir to the upper reservoir. During periods of low wind production, water is released from the upper reservoir and injected into the lower reservoir. During this water injection the vertical turbine-pump functions as a power generator turbine.
The above are just a few of the many applications for deep well pump systems and vertical turbine-pump systems. However currently, deep well pump systems are extremely expensive to make and install, difficult and expensive to maintain, inefficient and unreliable. Thus, there is a great need today for reliable, efficient, relatively low maintenance and reasonably priced deep well turbine-pump systems.